


The Garden's Gates

by rahelawriter



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Bedrooms, Conversations, F/M, Family, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Gen, Late Night Conversations, Late at Night, Mention of Worm-Eating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21608251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rahelawriter/pseuds/rahelawriter
Summary: The Warrior of Darkness has a surprise for Thancred and Ryne…
Relationships: Ryne | Minfilia & Thancred Waters, Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV) & Ryne | Minfilia, Warrior of Light/Thancred Waters
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	The Garden's Gates

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write this almost as soon as 5.1 launched, but. I'm glad I waited until I hit max rank with the pixies.

Another long day in the Empty was over, and Ryne flopped over onto her hammock on her side of the rented Mord Souq inn room. The low lantern light cast a soft, golden glow over the mostly dark room; she got settled into a comfortable position, having changed out of her usual dress and boots in favor of a simple, comfortable pink sleep shirt and knee-length shorts. Pulling the slightly scratchy woven blanket up to her shoulders, she heard her guardian from the other side of the room.

“Did you finish your studies for the day?” Sitting on the edge of his hammock, Thancred had changed out of his armor and leathers and into a loose, black sleeveless shirt and pajama pants.

“Yes, Thancred,” Ryne nodded to him. Urianger’s textbook, a monstrous brick the size of Ryne’s torso, sat underneath her hammock, bookmarked on tomorrow’s chapter. At her current pace of one chapter a day, she was about a week from being… halfway done.

“Charged up tomorrow’s cartridges?”

“Yes,” Ryne said, pointing to the pouch on the floor near where Thancred’s gunblade, Lionheart, leaned against the wall. She always relaxed her mind after a long reading by rolling the little metal cylinders in her hands. “They’re over there.”

“Brushed your teeth?”

Ryne shuddered. “After that dinner?  _ Twice.” _

Cracking a half-smile, Thancred commented, “You hated the glazed wigglers that much?”

“I thought the honey would make them taste at least a little bit better, but even then, I could barely keep them down…”

He shrugged. “I’ve had worse. But credit where credit is due; you were still willing to try it. That in itself makes you braver than Rahela.”

_ ‘Braver than Rahela?’ _ Just that set of words together was enough to catch Ryne by surprise. “Really? How?”

“Rah has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know, but even she balked at the wigglers. Instead she cracked her coin on the Everburning Bounty.”

_ The nightmarishly spicy lizard meat. _ Remembering the smell alone was enough to make Ryne cringe. “And how did she fare?”

“From what Alisaie told me, her eyes were still watering by the time they reunited hours later.” A soft puff of a chuckle, and then he canted his head to the side and remarked, “Though, when I pointed out that Rahela might have just been crying tears of joy to see her dear surrogate little sister again, Alisaie got flustered and punched me in the chest.”

Stifling her own giggle, Ryne agreed, “Either could be true, if you ask me.”

“But yes,” Thancred said, readjusting the direction of conversation, “You and Rahela both like sweets, but the honey glaze wasn’t enough to tempt her towards eating worms.”

Leaning into her pillow and turning onto her side, she mused with a yawn, “That’s the one thing about Eulmore that I still find myself missing from time to time: the desserts…”

(It went without saying that Ryne would never cast aside her responsibilities to Norvrandt in favor of indulging her sugary cravings. But that fact didn’t stop the cravings from existing.)

Thancred looked surprised that Ryne was admitting to missing something about her old, caged life; but he took it in stride, and said, “I expect Eulmore will have at least one patisserie that’s still open. Next time we’re there, we’ll have to see if we can find one.”

“A-and!” Ryne began voicing another request, but caught herself midway. Maybe what she wanted was too much to practically ask for, or maybe it was so obvious that she didn’t need to ask in the first place…

“And what? Speak up, now.”

“Erm… Can we get in touch with Rahela to see if she wants to come too? Would she want to?”

Thancred seemed surprised by the question for a moment before smiling. “Of course she would.”

“But she’s been so busy lately, both in this world, _ and _ in the Source.”

Leaning his chin upon his hand, Thancred mused, “I suppose the ‘getting in touch with her’ part might prove difficult. None of us have seen her for days, though Y’shtola said something about seeing her in a rather odd dream. She hasn’t told anyone what she’s been up to, but I doubt that she’s so busy that she wouldn’t make time for us.”

“How can you be so sure?” She truly didn’t think Rahela would say ‘no’ either, but she couldn’t dispel the voice of doubt in the back of her mind.

“ _ Well _ . I mean,” Thancred said with a bemused shrug, “She asked me to marry her, so I can fairly reasonably assume that she at least likes me, and enjoys my company. And she’s given you, what, eight  _ billion _ hugs in the short time she’s known you? She wouldn’t miss a family outing with us for the world; especially if there’s sweets involved.”

Ryne’s eyes widened, feeling her cheeks warming up. That’s right, Thancred told her of his engagement to Rahela after the celebrations in the Crystarium had died down. So it really would be a ‘family outing,’ wouldn’t it…? It was so surreal to her, knowing that the Warrior of Darkness that she and everyone else had been awaiting for so long was going to be her  _ mother… _ But even as surreal as it felt, Ryne could barely contain her joy.

Glancing back up at Thancred, Ryne caught him smiling at her, in a soft, sincere kind of way. “I know,” he said. “You want to see her, too, don’t you?”

She’d been so lost in thought that she didn’t realize that she’d been smiling, too. “Erm, I…”  _ Oh, who was she kidding. _ “Of course I do…”

Nodding as he reclined down into his hammock, Thancred said, “We’ll head to the Crystarium first thing tomorrow and see if anyone’s seen her. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Get some sleep until then.” Thancred turned off the lantern, sending the room into a comforting darkness. “Love you, Ryne. Goodnight.”

“Love you, too. Goodnight, Thancred…”

Ryne snuggled into her pillow, closing her eyes and lying still. Hopefully come morning, she would remember all the questions she wanted to ask Rahela directly about all the things she was doing… Periodic updates from Urianger weren’t enough; she wanted to see her mother…

**Author's Note:**

> This part is just a fluffy little prologue that got away from me a bit; the hubby and the lil bean are really fun to write for, they're so cute ♥︎♥︎♥︎.


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